Friday, November 26, 2010

Now this pie is pure fat and sugar. So if you are watching your figure...your blood sugar..or anything this is definitely not for you...but boy oh boy it was yummy! And once a year...why not splurge!!!!! Now I would suggest if you are going to make this, to get two people to do it. I would have had a heck of a time trying to do this by myself so I enlisted Dave's help! It was definitely needed!!!

Heat 1/4 cup heavy cream for the crust in a small saucepan over medium until it bubbles around edges of pan. Place cocoa powder in a bowl, stir in cream; set aside. Beat cubed butter and 10 tbsp powdered sugar in bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment until smooth. Beat in cocoa mixture, half the flour, and 1 egg yolk until smooth. Beat in remaining flour just until combined. Shape dough into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate at least 1 hour or overnight. Roll chilled dough on a lightly floured surface to 1/4 inch thick; transfer to a 9 - inch pie plate. trim overhang to 1 inch and roll edge under itself. Cover crust with plastic wrap and freeze 15 minutes. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place a piece of parchment paper or aluminum foil inside pie shell and fill with pie weights. Bake pie shell 25 - 30 minutes. Remove parchment and weights and bake the crust until crisp and dry, 5 - 10 minutes more; set aside. Sprinkle walnuts on bottom of crust.

Whisk together milk, cornstarch, and salt for slurry in a bowl; set aside. Brown 10 tbsp butter for the filling in a saute pan over medium heat, about 15 minutes. Add brown sugar and golden syrup; bring to a boil. Boil 3 minutes; whisk in boiling water until smooth, boil 1 minute more. Whisk slurry into sugar mixture and increase heat to medium-high. Cook, whisking constantly, until mixture comes to a boil, about 5 minutes; cook 1 minute more and remove from heat.

Beat heavy cream for the topping in a bowl with a hand mixer on medium to soft peaks. Add 1/4 cup powdered sugar and 2 tsp whiskey, beating until combined. Top pie with whipped cream and garnish with the Heath crunchies.

Now some of you may say "Ewww" to my next dish, but they were sooooo yummy!! I found this recipe in the Cuisine Magazine, but changed it up a bit. As soon as I said Brussel Sprouts, Dave said "Bacon?". Well the recipe didn't call for bacon so I added it. It also said to roast in the oven and since I had dressing, green bean casserole and rolls in the oven, PLUS the turkey, I had to improvise and actually fake roast them in cast iron pot on the stove, but they turned out so yummy I wanted to share them with you:

2 lbs brussel sprouts, trimmed and halved

1 tbsp, olive oil, salt and pepper

5 slices of maple bacon, chopped

1/4 cup minced shallots

8 oz mushrooms, sliced (if you have them)

½ cup of chicken stock or white wine

1 cup heavy cream

In a Dutch oven pot, cook the chopped bacon until crisp.
Remove the bacon. Using the grease from the bacon (adding a bit of olive oil if
you don’t have enough grease) add the shallots and garlic. Sauté till tender. Add
the mushrooms and sauté till tender. Deglaze the pan with the chicken stock or
the white wine. Add the Brussels sprouts and cook over medium heat until they
are tender and start to become a golden brown. Mine were kinda large, so this
took about 30 minutes. Add the heavy
cream bring to a boil. Salt and pepper to taste. It was heavenly! The sauce browned a bit..Yum!